Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading: A compendium of valuable information and wise suggestions that will inspire noble effort at the hands of every race-loving man, woman, and child.
History
Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading: A compendium of valuable information and wise suggestions that will inspire noble effort at the hands of every race-loving man, woman, and child.
African Americans
The horrors of intemperance have never been fully portrayed. No pencil
is black enough to paint the picture and do it full justice. No tongue
is eloquent enough to tell the sad, sad story in all its details. It
has so spread itself as to compel us to style it a wide and verily a
withering curse. It is the parent of many physical disorders, that
begin with bleared eyes, a blistered tongue, general derangement of
the stomach, paralysis of the nerves, and hardening of the liver; and
to so great an extent it poisons the blood as to cause coagulation of
the brain. All of which, as a natural consequence, induce and
aggravate many diseases, ending with causing to be dug a myriad of
premature graves.
Intemperance is a mental curse, and it clouds the judgment, dethrones
reason, promotes ignorance to the extent that to approach the
unenlightened upon the subject of temperance is the means of incurring
the displeasure of many, and in numerous instances causes vile
epithets to be applied to those who are advocates of the cause of
temperance.
[Illustration: MRS. M. A. M'CURDY, ROME, GA.]
Another great and startling reason why all persons should abstain from
the use of intoxicating liquors is that it is a mental curse, because
it produces imbecility and transforms its unhappy victims into maniacs
and fools. Intemperance or the use of alcoholic liquors brings a curse
upon the morals of all nations, and thereby proves to be a moral
curse. It weakens the will and so influences the passions as to hush
the voice of conscience and prepare the way for every vice and crime.
Then, with all that, let us briefly review a few of the attendant
miseries of intemperance that are about us like a swarm of locusts
coming as a plague: In the slimy trail of this alcoholic serpent can
be found everything that is dark and dreadful--yea, everything that is
ruinous. In it can be found men without manhood, women without
womanhood, infancy without hope, want and woe, rage and wretchedness,
disease and death; and, furthermore, in the trail of this venomous
serpent can be found broken vows and broken hearts, bad manners and
bad morals, bad words and bad actions, bad parents and bad children, a
bad beginning and a bad end. Then surely intemperance is the crowning
curse of American society; and as such the traffic is, as has been
often said, a gigantic crime. It came and continues to be an unwelcome
intruder. It erects in our midst distilleries or dramshops. Everywhere
we need the church and schoolhouse, these being uplifting and
elevating forces, while the distilleries and dramshops are mediums
through which distress and want, sorrow and death, are brought into
our midst in an inconceivably short time, carrying to untimely graves
and everlasting woe hundreds--yea, thousands--who otherwise might be
saved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account